Posts

Strategy is always important in everything that you do. Let your actions be deliberate and characterized by well thought out plans. It therefore begs the question, which is the best place to have the affiliate links? Do not just throw the links at customers without a proper plan. The trick is usually to have a build up to the specific links so that visitors arrive at them “naturally” without being forced.

Within Blog Posts “Naturally”

I use the term “naturally” because the links should fit well within the blog content to an extent that the reader sees them as part and parcel of the post. When you force a link within a post, it may portray you as someone who is trying too had to sell a product. Because of psychology, most people assume that a good product does not need a lot of selling, only inferior products do. Use the blog content to buy the trust of customers first. It will then not be difficult to convince them to click on the links. The need to provide information should be the key priority and customers should believe that even if deep inside you just want to make some sales. You can make the links noticeable or very subtle depending on what works best for you.

Within Digital Products

Electronic products such as e-books and programs are some of the best places to have affiliate links. This is much simpler if you are able to create your own e-products. As you make money by selling them, you also earn commission through the affiliate system. It’s pretty much easy to convince customers to check out a link if the products that they had already bought matched or exceeded their expectations.

Side Banner Ads

This is another ideal way to avail affiliate links to customers. They are hard to miss and the best part is that you’ll be using your own site so you don’t have to pay for advertisement. Serious merchants will even provide you with the necessary graphics to use. You however need to carry out a test run first. If the ads are not getting meaningful clicks, you can always take them down to reduce the amount of clutter on the site.

Resource Page

Here you provide affiliate links of related products. The resource page can prove to be a powerful tool for earning extra income. To put a little more weight, you can offer short explanations so that a customer can have an idea of what he or she is getting into. These products do not necessarily have to be your primary focus but because they are related to whatever product that you are selling, customers can always find them relevant.

As time goes by, you’ll gather sufficient experience to know what works best for you. Always keep tabs on your results because by evaluating your progress, you can find better strategies to help you make more sales. Never be afraid to try something new if the familiar is not working for you. It’s always a learning process until you find the best working combination

In the modern business world, digital marketing and a solid online presence are vital to success. All entrepreneurs and small business owners, regardless of their level of business experience, should be able to manage their online presence, marketing, and sales process. However, juggling all those parts and still delivering your product can be time-consuming and frustrating!

Easy-To-Use Digital Marketing Platform

I’d like to introduce you to one of the most complete and easy-to-use digital marketing platforms available so you can bring your ideas to life, bring more customers to your doorstep, deliver your message to thousands of people, sell your products, and more.​​​​​​​In this easy-to-use digital marketing platform, you can start out with a simple test website and build it out using a platform equipped with the most advanced and sophisticated sales funnels and dozens of other included features. That’s why it’s the perfect solution for all small business owners who want to become great entrepreneurs, service providers, digital marketing professionals, designers, coaches, networking professionals, and much more.

Let’s Compare

Let’s look at a short comparison between Wix and ClickFunnels. Wix is an excellent platform for building websites, but that’s all it can do. ClickFunnels is another great platform for building sales funnels, but that is all it does. You will need other digital services to develop your online business, which means it will get more expensive to buy all of those services individually. Not only that, but some of those systems are not even compatible with each other. Our digital marketing platform is the only platform that has all the tools you need in one place, with only one monthly fee! You can easily build your websites, sales funnels, e-mail marketing and much more, with all of the tools seamlessly integrated. You will save a ton of money because all of the tools that you need are in one place. No more paying one service for your funnels, another service for your autoresponder, or another to build your websites. One fee for a boat load of services …no strings attached!

So, get empowered digitally today…right away! In fact, if you’ll just click the link, you’ll get a FREE 7-Day Trial so you can try it out, look around, test drive it, even create a website or sales funnel, etc.

With eFax, users can quickly and easily fax from their computer, tablet, smart phone or any other Internet-enabled device. No need for a fax machine, paper, ink, or extra fax phones lines. No more waiting in line at the fax machine, dealing with paper jams or redialing busy fax numbers. eFax lets you receive, review, edit, add a digitized signature, and securely send faxes from your email — and store and retrieve all of your faxes online forever.

Knowing what a lead or sales funnel is and what it does is essential for you to succeed in Facebook Ads. Otherwise, you’re leaving money on the table because you’re not optimizing your ads for every stage of the sales process.

For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to define a sales funnel as having three stages: the top, middle, and bottom. To get higher conversion rates, you’ll need to create separate types of ads for each stage of the funnel.

Stay with me…

Top of Your Sales Funnel

For instance, at the top of the sales funnel, people wouldn’t know your brand, and what you do, so you need to introduce yourself to them. For this purpose, Brand Awareness and Reach ads are great objectives to use for your Facebook ad. You don’t want to sell on them aggressively as it could turn them off your brand. Instead, try to offer something of value. When they engage with your ad, you can re-target them later on with another ad.

Middle of Your Sales Funnel

At the middle of your funnel, your audience will be at the stage where they will be more likely to consider your business as the solution to their pain point. Since this is your second point of contact with your audience, they’d be more likely to engage with your ad. You can use different campaign objectives depending on what you want to achieve. For instance, you can choose from Traffic, Engagement, App Installs, Video Views, Lead Generation, and Message objectives on Facebook ads. Maybe a few people in your audience will be willing to buy something from you now, but most of them will need some more prodding. So we go into the next stage of the funnel…the bottom.

Bottom of Your Sales Funnel

The bottom of the funnel is where you ask people to buy your stuff. You’ve already made some contact with them – they’ve engaged with your past ads, they’ve visited your site, signed up to your mailing list, downloaded your app, and more. They should be ready to buy now. You can create a Facebook ad with any of the following objectives – Conversions, Catalog Sales, and Store Visits. When you create the perfect ad, one that will resonate with your bottom of the funnel audience, then you’ve got them in the bag. You can also do a few split tests so you can find the winning ads, which you can scale later on.

The pixel is a cute name for what is probably Facebook Ads’ most powerful weapon for advertisers. Not only does the pixel track what your visitors are doing on your website, but it also transcends any device and IP address. Once your user is tagged by the pixel, you can be sure that your ads are going to be shown to that user regardless of whether they’re using another device or traveling in another country. Sounds great doesn’t it! Read on…

Here are five reasons why re-target marketing is so effective in Facebook Ads:

1. You’re targeting a warm or hot audience

Unlike cold audiences, it’s easier for warm or hot audiences to convert because they already know your brand or business. Only a very small percentage of first-time visitors (cold audience) actually buys anything so re-targeting them in your next ad campaign helps increase your chances of getting them to buy from you later on.

2. Increase brand awareness

On the second point of contact with your business, your prospect or lead may start opening themselves to your business. They may not be ready to buy from you yet, but slowly they’re becoming more aware of your brand. At this stage, they are in the middle of your sales funnel (consideration stage). With just a bit more push, you can get them down to the bottom of the funnel where it’s easier to convince them to buy.

3. You can generate more sales

People familiar with a brand is more likely to do business with that brand than someone they don’t know. If you use a sales funnel for your business, you can implement different techniques and strategies to move people from the top of your funnel (awareness stage) down to the bottom of the funnel (conversion stage). Re-target marketing helps ensure you get more sales down at the bottom of the funnel.

4. Higher conversion rates

Re-target marketing will help you increase your conversion rates. As people go on down your sales funnel, your conversion rates will be higher. They’ve seen your ads plenty of times, so they know you and probably trust you by now.

5. Lower ad costs

With higher conversion rates and optimized adverts, your ad costs will be much lower. This is because Facebook rewards advertisers with high ad engagement and conversion rates. With lower ad costs, you can then look into scaling your campaigns and reaching even more people.

Many advertisers on Facebook don’t have the pixel installed on their website. Most think setting it up is complicated while some are only interested in getting a few quick sales and don’t think it’s worth the hassle. However, smart marketers and advertisers know that if you want to truly succeed with Facebook Ads, then you need the Facebook pixel. It’s free and easy to install. You do not need to be an experienced tech guru.

So here are three reasons why you need to install the Facebook pixel on your website today:

1. You can create a custom audience

Facebook’s audience targeting tool is very useful – it will let you hyper-target people based on their location, their age, gender, interests, hobbies, and so much more. But with the pixel, you can take your targeting to a whole new level. You can target only people who have been on your website, so you know these are people who know you and your brand.

2. You need the pixel to re-market your existing and potential customers

The pixel will track what your website visitors are doing on your website. It will know what pages they’ve visited, and if you are tracking various events on your site (for instance, adding items to cart, making purchases, etc.), then the pixel will report that information to Facebook.

When you set up your Facebook Ads, you can segment your audience into people who have browsed a certain page on your website, as well as those who added your products to cart but did not check out, and so on. With this information, you can easily offer up relevant ads to your web visitors depending on their site activity.

3. The pixel will track your visitors’ activities across devices

The pixel code is so powerful that it can follow your site visitors and learn about their activities whether they are on a mobile phone, tablet or laptop computer. It offers a seamless experience for users and adds a lot of value to advertisers. For instance, if your visitor initially visited your site on their laptop, they’d still be able to see your ads on Facebook whether they’re on another laptop or a smartphone.

You’re probably wondering how to set up your Facebook Pixel on your website. It’s simple, go HEREto get it set up so you can optimize your advertising and convert your visitors into buyers.

There are plenty of Facebook Ads marketers who are reporting conversion costs of anywhere from a few cents to a fraction of a penny. Others aren’t so lucky. In fact, most inexperienced marketers are reporting quite the opposite and are getting burned due to astronomical ad costs.

Now there are plenty of factors that come into play when talking about Facebook ad costs. But obviously, before you even get started you should have some sort of budget in mind (unless you have an unlimited supply of money).

Here are three ways you can lower your Facebook ads budget:

1. Know your target audience

Ideally, you should already have an idea of who’s going to be interested in your product or service. Whether you are a first-time entrepreneur or a battle-hardened businessman, you must know who your target audience is. Is your product geared towards women or men? Are you targeting young professionals or travelers?

Knowing your target audience will help lower your ad budget because there’s a higher probability these people are going to be interested in what you have to offer. Targeting an audience who doesn’t fit your ideal user will lead to higher ad costs because they won’t be paying your ad any attention.

2. Set a bid cap

You can set a daily or lifetime budget for your Facebook ads. But did you know you can also set a bid cap? If you didn’t know before, well now you do. A bid cap is like what the name suggests – Facebook will put a cap on your bid. So, for example, if you can only afford to pay $0.5 per click, then you can put that amount as your bid cap. Otherwise, Facebook may charge you $1 per click, or more, depending on the competition. A bid cap helps ensure you don’t go beyond your budget.

3. Don’t advertise around the holidays

During holidays, people tend to buy a lot of things online. This buying frenzy drives marketers and businesses to create Facebook ads to get buyers’ attention which in turn drives up the advertising costs for everyone. So if you don’t want to compete with many other businesses, it’s best to not advertise during peak seasons like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other important holidays. There are 365 days in a year – you can always advertise before or after the buying season to help lower your ad spend.

Find out how you can DOMINATE your competition with Facebook Ads the right way. GoHEREto find out how and to start CRUSHING your competition!

If you’ve ever created and/or managed a Facebook page, you’d know where to find that ubiquitous “Boost A Post” button because it appears on virtually all of your page’s posts. It’s quite simple to get started with boosting a post – all you have to do is just click on that button and follow the onscreen instructions. In just a few minutes you’ll have your very first Facebook ad.

However, if you want more control over the creatives you can use for your ad, as well have more campaign objectives to choose from, you should use Facebook Ads. It’s more complicated, yes, but you get far more out of Facebook Ads than just a simple boosted post.

Here are three reasons why Facebook Ads are more effective than boosted posts:

1. You’re not stuck with using a boring, old post

With boosted posts, you can only boost published posts. This means that you need to write a post first, publish it, and only then can you boost it. With Facebook ads, you have so many options to choose from – you can even create dark posts which are posts that are created specifically for ads. Dark posts don’t appear on your news feed, unlike boosted posts.

2. You have plenty of choices where you want your ad to appear

Facebook Ads allow you to post your ad not just in the news feed but also in the right column, on Instagram, on the Audience Network, and more. You have a lot of options that are just not available with boosted posts. If you boost your post, it will only appear on mobile and desktop news feeds.

3. You can’t schedule your boosted post

Though you can set an end date with your boosted post, you can’t set a start date. Once you boost your post, it will start automatically. With Facebook Ads, you can set a start and end date. This means that if you plan on being away on holiday for the next week or so, then you can schedule your ads in advance.

With that being said, boosted posts do have advantages. It’s a great way to test the waters, so to speak. You can get a taste of advertising on Facebook, but pretty soon you’d want to scale your ads. When you do, you’ll need to get up to speed with Facebook Ads and the Ads Manager.

Get the inside scoop on how you can dominate Facebook with Facebook Ads and CRUSH your competition.

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From: Cynthia Jordan

There are over 2 billion people who log into Facebook every single day. They share updates with their families, friends, and acquaintances.

But did you know, they also buy billions of dollars’ worth of products and services just from the ads they see on Facebook?

Would You Like To Tap Into This Billion Dollar Industry And Grow Your Business Like There’s No Tomorrow?

If you answered YES, then you definitely need to check out Facebook Ads Domination NOW. This course is made specifically for those who will answer YES to any of the questions below.

Are you sick and tired of seeing many people walk over to your competitors’ businesses while you struggle with getting 1 or 2 to walk into your store?

Are you jealous of your competitors hiring more and more people each week while you, on the other hand, are thinking about how to let go of your employees?

Are you afraid you just may have to close your business if you don’t get enough leads or potential customers next month?

Are your competitors talking endlessly about how their sales funnel is so effective it costs them less than a penny per customer?

And lastly, are you tired of seeing your competitors gloat over their Facebook ads profits?

Simply follow the step-by-step strategies in the course and you’ll be on your way to raking in huge profits!

Well, the time has come for you to take action. Don’t let your competitors laugh all the way to the bank. With Facebook Ads Domination, you can crush your competitors by stealing their customers and converting them over to your business!

We know Facebook Ads has a steep learning curve, so we made Facebook Ads Domination very easy to understand by including step-by-step screenshots to help you out.

We’re serious when we say we care about your business and we want you to succeed!

Facebook Ads Domination

The Ultimate Guide To Using Facebook Ads To Get More Leads and Sales

Here’s exactly what you’ll get inside the course:

Facebook Ads Domination Course

Here’s what you’ll discover in this course:

Learn exactly how Facebook Ads work and how you can set up high converting ads using the Facebook Ads Manager.

Find out why you can’t rely on organic Facebook traffic.

Uncover several techniques to take advantage of the Facebook pixel’s power and use it to grow your business.

Know why you need to start collecting your customer’s data now so you can re-target them later with Facebook Ads.

How to optimize your Facebook Ads design so your target audience will engage with your ads.

Understand the importance of custom audiences and lookalike audiences.

SPECIAL BONUSES FOR TAKING ACTION!

FAST-ACTION BONUS #1: Point-By-Point Checklist

You’ll also get this handy checklist so that you can check off each point.

It is like a summary of the entire guide but in actionable, bite-sized points so that you can successfully get through the course.

FAST-ACTION BONUS #2:Resource Cheat Sheet

You’ll also get access to a Rolodex of top sites, blogs, forums, tools, apps and services to get you even further.

Inside you’ll find:

Top blogs and forums

Top tools

Top tips and how to’s

+ more!

FAST-ACTION BONUS #3:Mind Map

A quick glance over this mind map and you’ll get an instant refresher of all the major points and action steps from the main guide.

Does that sound good or what!

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Did I mention this eBook is only $10.00? It’s definitely a point worth repeating. You will be hard-pressed to find a more valuable resource.

I’m delighted to have the chance to share this powerful guide with you.

Again, you will receive the comprehensive and valuable insightsfor only $10.00 .

Please click the Add To Cart button right now and take ownership of this valuable eBook TODAY! But before you do, opt-in with your best email so I’ll know where to send it should you decide to purchase. Don’t worry, your email information is safe and will not be shared. I hate spam just like you do.

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Yes! I want instant access to Facebook Ads Domination which includes the following:

The Main Course

FAST-ACTION BONUS #1: Checklist

FAST-ACTION BONUS #2: Resource Cheat Sheet

FAST-ACTION BONUS #3: Mind Map

Regular Price: $27.00

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To Your Success,

Cynthia Jordan

P.S. Buying this course will allow you to grow and change your business direction for the better. You’ll know how to navigate the complex Facebook Ads Manager interface so you can create wildly successful adverts in no time at all.

P.P.S. You’ll never find another step-by-step guide like Facebook Ads Domination. This guide will not only educate you on different strategies to succeed on Facebook but will also quite literally hold your hand while you grow from being a fledgling Facebook advertiser to a master!

One of the most common questions I get is, “Can you still get good traffic from Facebook?” The answer is a resounding YES! (But with one big caveat.)

The unfortunate thing is that for most people, the days of getting
a lot of organic traffic from Facebook are long gone. Facebook pages don’t seem to reach very many people as you would hope or want. You find yourself on the hunt to ask for recommendations and likes…doesn’t sound very productive does it?

Nowadays, if you want traffic from Facebook, you have to pay for it.

But who wants to do that…right?

Let’s face it. it’s Facebook’s site, so we all have to be good and play by their rules. There’s just no way around it…or is there?

The good news is that it’s relatively simple to create an ad on Facebook, and it’s easy to learn how. No prior experience required.

You can get good results on Facebook for just a few bucks a day if you use strategic targeting and spend a little time tweaking your campaigns. If you do this, you will get the best results for your time and ad costs.

Let’s take a look at some of the ads that Facebook has to take your business to a new level. I bet you didn’t know these ads existed..

Video Ads

Video Ads are best if you really want to attract attention. They tend to grab more attention than any other ad type. Because most individuals are “visual” this type of ad is extremely effective and attractive to it’s viewer.

Collection Ads

Canvas Ads

Canvas Ads are mobile only, but they allow for a wide range of interesting interactions that grab attention and keep it centered on your ad. They have the benefit of loading up to ten times faster than other mobile content. Most importantly, visitors will have the ability access your content by panning, tilting, swiping, and much more!

Slideshow Ads

Lead Generation Ads

Lead generation ads are made to gather email addresses, telephone numbers, or any other information you need to market your business. They are perfect for helping you build your list, because the money is in the list!

Offer Ads

Post Engagement Ads

Post engagement ads are ideal for getting more likes, comments and shares of your content on Facebook. This is a good option if you’re just looking to boost your engagement or raising your profile on the site.

When you set up your home office for the first time there are 5 simple things you should take into consideration. You must take into consideration your space, quiet, lighting, office tools and security. Implementing these 5 things can make your office more enjoyable and help you work more efficiently.

A home office can be a space where you work full time, pay your bills, or finish the work from the office outside your home. No matter how you use your home office it has to function in the same way. Below is a brief description of the 5 most important things to consider when setting up your office.

1. Space

Space is very important in the sense that the amount of space we have to work in can create certain feelings and emotions that can affect the way we work. If you have ever worked in a small office cuticle for any number of times, you have probably felt caged or cramped at least once. Feeling cramped can impede your work by distracting you from the task at hand. For most of us, we enjoy enough space to stretch our arms out in front, out to the side and of course above our heads. You need space to move from your desk to the filing cabinet or bookshelf. You don’t have to have a spacious cathedral like room to work in, but definitely enough space to be comfortable in.

2. Quiet

Your office should be a peaceful area where there are little to no distractions. You wouldn’t want your office next to your child’s bedroom, where they are crying or blasting their favorite music. If your office space is to be used for work, you need quiet for concentration and focus that will allow you to complete your tasks effectively and efficiently. If you have a choice, try putting your office in the room furthest from the room(s) that would bring the most distractions.

3. Lighting

Lighting can be seriously important for your morale and for the health of your eyes. Poor lighting can cause blurred vision and serious headaches. If you are forced to squint or sit absurdly close to your screen due to the level of light, then it’s time you invest in a desk lamp. If you prefer natural light, then set-up your office space near a window, plus looking outside the window could put you in a more relaxed mood while working.

4. Office Equipment

If there is one piece of office equipment to invest in, it’s a comfortable ergonomic office chair. So many people suffer from back and leg pains due to sitting in a poorly constructed office chair. You want to have a cushion seat for your bottom, proper support for your upper and lower back and the arms. You will need an office chair that can be raised and lowered to adjust to the comfort of your legs. Purchasing a comfortable office chair can make hours in the office much more comfortable. And when you are done working for the day, you can leave the office behind instead of taking the pains with you. Make sure you invest in the right computer or laptop for your business needs. Please refer to my previous post: http://firstratemarketing.com/acer-a-high-quality-laptop-for-your-business-needs/

When running a home office business, you want to be extra cautious of your home safety and security. You want to take the necessary steps to protect yourself, of course, as well as your office equipment, the equipment needed to effectively operate your business. Don’t forget to speak to you insurance agent to get extra coverage on your valuable office equipment. In addition, you would want to invest in a really good software security package for your computer. It’s important that you protect your customer’s private and sensitive information if stored on your computer and the proper security software should take of that.

If you pay attention to these 5 areas when setting up your home office, you will save yourself a lot of stress and frustration. If you feel comfortable and happy when you walk into your home office, you will work more effectively and efficiently.

Alright, let’s say for a moment that you already have your online Shopify store set up and ready to take orders. Ideally, you’ve already tested the ordering process to make sure your payment processors are working correctly, and that orders go through.

What’s next?

Marketing your Shopify store of course! It’s time to get your product or service in front of your targeted audience.

There are many ways to market your Shopify store, but your method of choice will depend on your specific market.

Generally, I find that social media is the clear winner when it comes to
marketing most online stores. This is especially true if your market’s
demographic is under the age of 40, but you can still reach people of all ages via social media.

Facebook has the widest range of demographics available. You can market for free on Facebook with a page or group, or you can use paid ads to reach
even more people.

Pinterest and Instagram are both great for selling products, because they
are highly visual platforms, which allows you to really show off your items in a way other platforms can’t easily match. Visual platforms are perfect for any Shopify store. Case in point, when a potential customer comes to your store, they will see the photos of your products. Make sure your pictures are vivid, high quality pictures that your potential customers can’t resist clicking on. We’ll talk more about photos later in the post.

If you’re not using Pinterest for your Shopify marketing, here are a few tips to get you started:

Use Coupons

Pinterest users love coupons and they love the exclusivity that comes from discovering something on Pinterest and then being able to save money on it. You can use third-party sites like Groupon to set up deals, as well as applications like Wishpond. Then, you can create a coupon board on your Pinterest page that people can check often.

SEO

Many people use Pinterest for their business with no regard to optimizing their Pinterest page, pins or boards for search engines. Always use good SEO practices with Pinterest.

Run Contests

If you want to make your Pinterest follows take note and increase the traffic to your Shopify store then you want to run contests regularly. Contests are exciting and they end up being shared a lot more often. Contests can introduce you to a whole new audience on Pinterest. You can either host the contests on your own Shopify site or you can host them on Pinterest and drive traffic to your site. Wishpond also works well for contests.

Use Rich Pins

Rich pins are something relatively new to Pinterest. Rich pins allow you to pin recipe pins, movie pins and pins on a specific product, which is what you want. You are allowed to update price, product availability and more, plus there is more content for the search engines to find, which means more traffic. Rich pins can be used to showcase special products that you are currently trying to promote or you can use them for your products whenever you post them. This will allow you to get traffic to Pinterest and send it straight to your store.

Now, if you’re not using Instagram for your Shopify marketing, here are a few tips to get you started:

Sign-up With Facebook

This is the most easiest and quickest way to set up your Instagram account. It will automatically allow you to follow your friends that are already on Instagram and in turn they will follow you too. Your friends and family will be the first followers on Instagram which will help boost your profile and get you ready for the main deal.

Post Quality Photos

The most important thing on Instagram is the quality of your photos. Having quality photos on Instagram will help you get more likes, comments, and more followers.

Like Other Photos

Is like your first day in school, no one knows you and the only way people will start interacting with you is by you taking the first step to say hello or introduce yourself to them. When you like other people photos, those people visit your profile and decide to follow and also like your photos. This is how you start growing your network on Instagram

Follow Others

This is the fastest way to grow your followers on Instagram. When you follow others they follow you back creates a connection between the both of you. This helps increase your followers and likes on photos you have on your profile. Simple rule: Follow others to get more followers.

Comment On Other Photos

This method takes more time and work but it surely pays off. When you comment on other people’s photos, you increase the chance of them following you and liking your photos too. Just take some time out of your social media marketing timetable and comment on other people photos to increase your followers.

Another really good way to market your Shopify online store is also part of social media, called influencer marketing.

Here’s how it works…

⇒ Contact people who have a following in your niche on social media, YouTube, blogs, etc.

⇒ You pay them a fee, and they create posts or videos about your store and your products.

Influencers already have a reputation in their field, they have the potential to really get you a lot of sales if you use sound marketing practices!

Don’t forget PPC advertising like Google and Bing. They make it really simple
to target by keyword, which is perfect for finding buyers. Just be sure to
use words like “buy” and “price” in your keywords, and use NEGATIVE keywords like “free” to keep from spending money for traffic that won’t buy.

Try some of these helpful tips and hints to help you market your Shopify store online. Market with confidence and with a great expectation in return.

Now, I take it that you’ve decided to use Google AdSense ads on your website or blog…right? Great decision! Now that you’ve made an informed decision, you need to consider where to place the ads on your pages. Much like real estate, it is all about location, location, location. Oh, and you may want to get the AdSense Secrets book because it gives it to you straight from the hip!

First off, you will not make $500,000 a year with Google AdSense if you have one site with 30 pages and 30 people visiting it a day. The people offering eBooks and memberships to that end are full of stuff. Google AdSense is a program that produces over time or if you have a lot of visitors or sites.

Now that I have burst your bubble, (and I didn’t mean to…sorry) let me offer you some advice on ways to do well with Google AdSense.

Best Placement of Google AdSense Ads…Location, Location, Location!

The single most critical step to making money with AdSense is the location of the ads. Most people put them down the right column or up at the top. This approach is dead wrong because of something known as “ad blindness”. Ad blindness occurs when you look at the same format over and over. In the case of the internet, most people unconsciously filter out the ads on the top, right column and bottom of a page. After looking at hundreds of sites and results on search engines, they know those listings are advertisements.

Google AdSense Ad Blindness

The best way to avoid ad blindness is to put the ads in unexpected places. In this case, you want to place them between the paragraphs of text on your site. Few sites do this, which is pretty surprising. This placement is perfect for maximizing clicks because it is in the natural flow of the text. Readers will inevitably read the text ads and click anything they might be interested in. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that people do not read the entire article or page on a site. They usually only make it through 50 to 80 percent because they find out what they want. If you place ads at the bottom of the page, they are never going to see them.

Choose Your AdSense Ad Type And Color Wisely

The second biggest issue is the type and color of the ads. First, try to stick to text link ads whenever possible. Nobody clicks banners because they are worried about getting caught in popup hell. I know this all to well!!! As to color, some believe your ads should stand out while others believe they should blend in. Personally, I am with the blend in group. I try to make my ads blend into the overall color of the site and it seems to work very well.

Adding AdSense to your site is simple, but should be done with some thought. Avoid the top, bottom and right column of the pages. Try to place the java script in between paragraphs of text and experiment with different colors to see how it does. Ultimately, you will find a solution that returns solid click-thru rates and generates revenues month after month, year after year.

Google AdSense has provided website owners a simple way to make money online. Just copy and paste a simple piece of code into your website and you can be making money within 5 minutes. No wages for salespersons, no dealing with advertisers, no hassles. However, there is a big difference between making a couple of cents per day and retiring on your own private yacht in the Caribbean. There is more to do than simply plugging your advertisements into any section of your website, sitting back, and hoping the checks will start filling up your mailbox.

1. Don’t Make Your AdSense Ads Look Like Ads

People are so “banner blind” now that they’ll skim right over your AdSense ads if you make them look too much like actual ads. By removing the background and the border of your ads and making them blend in with your own site’s background, it will help your sales tremendously!

2. Don’t Click Your Own AdSense Links

It may be tempting to earn that potential .03 for yourself but in the long run it’s not worth it! Google has ways to detect “click fraud” and you WILL get caught and you’ll forfeit all of your earnings.

3. Put Your AdSense Ads Close To Your Content

Don’t put your content way up at the top and then put your AdSense ads way down at the bottom. You won’t get very many click-thrus. Make sure your website content is actually integrated with your ads.

4. Adapt The Fonts

Whenever you write content, it should be the same font size and style as your Google Adsense block. This will help make it appear that the advertisements are a natural part of your website. Also, match the colors when changing the fonts, which should also match the colors of your website. For instance, if your content is written in black, and your hyperlinks are blue, then the ad blocks should also be the same color. Again, this helps the advertisements appear to be a natural part of your website.

5. Have Relevant Keywords On Your Site

If your site is about “website traffic” and you just keep mentioning the word “traffic” by itself, your Google AdSense ads may display ads for rush hour traffic, or traffic jams. Which has nothing to do with your website. Keep your ads relevant by giving your content good, thorough keywords.

Some clicks are worth higher than others depending on the “keyword” that the ad is targeting. What does this mean? Google AdSense are “content based” ads, meaning that they display the links for people to click on based on the content of your website.

For example, if you have a website about “tennis” then the ads Google AdSense display will be all about tennis. So if the text on your site that Google is basing their ads on is for “tennis balls”, then the keyword phrase “tennis balls” may be paying higher per click than “tennis racket”.

6. Help The AdSense Robot

A picture says a thousand words but to a robot/spider that is crawling your pages a picture says very little about what the content is about. If your site contains a lot of pictures then do yourself, your visitor, and the AdSense bot a favor and add some text to let everyone know what the image is about. This way the AdSense advertisements will be more targeted to what your site/page is all about and the user won’t see unrelated advertisements within your website.

5. Increase Your Website Traffic

Seems like another obvious one, but so many good websites exist that aren’t reaching their potential target market. Optimize your website to gain better search engine rankings, participate in forums that are related to your website, submit your website to industry related directories, and get the word out there in any way that you can think of to help drive targeted visitors to your website. Remember that the internet is an amazingly powerful medium to facilitate word-of-mouth. The effort you put into promoting your site will be rewarded by satisfied visitors/customers spreading the word about your website. However, make sure that you have a quality website/product/service or the opposite can happen just as quick.

By incorporating the above tips you should improve your Adsense earnings. I’m not telling you that by using these tips that you’ll be retiring on your yacht with a Pina Colada in hand so don’t quit your day job! If you follow the advice above it will get you on your way to improving your click-thru-rates, your website design, and the experience for your visitor. Probably the most important thing that these tips help you with is to encourage you to test and experiment with Adsense and not just assume that whatever style you use and wherever you put it in is the right place.

There are dozens of popular e-commerce platforms out there, and it can be
tricky to choose between them. With so many out there, which one is the
right one for you? In this post, I will do a short overview of two very popular e-commerce platforms used by many: Shopify and WooCommerce.

Of course, you probably know by know that Shopify is indeed my favorite. Stay with me for a moment and I’ll explain why.

Yes, there are LOTS of other platforms out there, and you are free to choose or research the others if you prefer, but Shopify and WooCommerce have the most support, the right themes, and plugins to meet your e-commerce needs.

So which one would you choose?

Shopify – PROS

If you’re a beginner in e-commerce, I recommend that you use Shopify.

The Shopify platform does not require you to have a separate hosting account, install any scripts, or do any kind of major administrative tasks. Shopify is extremely easy to use. The back-end is modeled after WordPress and so it has much the same look and feel. You can easily figure out how to add products, how to enable or disable features of your store, how to set up payment options and many other useful features. This is probably one of the main strengths.

It also has some interesting plugins that let you source products from
AliExpress, which can make it very simple to set up a drop shipping business.
That means you don’t have to store products, rent warehouse space, or concern yourself with packing and shipping.

You can customize the look of your Shopify site using the free themes that come with your membership. This is useful because not every e-commerce platform offers that to you. And there are some that require an additional one-time payment to use because they are made by individual creators, and not Shopify.

Shopify takes care of a lot of details if you choose to take advantage of their platforms. For example, Shopify has payment gateways already integrated into the backend that you can set up on your store. There are also shipping options available, to make it easy for you to print a label and ship.

Shopify has a lot of help information in an app store to allow you to add even more features to your site. Some e-commerce platforms have a very noticeable lack of documentation but not with Shopify. They have a manual that is extremely comprehensive plus additional documentation and live support.

And lastly (but not least) Shopify is competitively priced. The prices that they charge for the various packages are comparable with other shopping platforms.

Shopify – CONS

The only real disadvantage that Shopify has as an e-commerce platform is the pricing, which was also included as an advantage. The reason that it is also included here is simply because there are e-commerce platforms out there that charge nothing (like WooEcommerce…so you think). With Shopify you do end up paying credit card processing fees, app fees, and of course the monthly fee which can range between $29 and $179 a month. However, for the functionality that you get, the price is still extremely fair. With the $29 a month store and even with paying credit card processing fees you’ll still have a great potential to make a profit.

Shopify knows that you want to make a good informed decision, so they are giving you an opportunity to start your online store with Shopify for FREE…no credit card required. This is a trial opportunity so you can take Shopify on a test drive…try it before you commit to the $29 per month basic version or an upgrade if you choose. Personally, I recommend that you start with the basic version and as you begin to bring in the profits (and you will), upgrade to the next level.

WooCommerce – PROS

WooCommerce, by contrast, is free. It’s slightly more complex to use,
because you do need your own hosting account, and you do need to install
WordPress, because WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. But there’s
plenty of documentation to walk you step-by-step through the process.

You also have plenty of themes available. There are lots of free
themes to choose from, as well as additional paid themes if you prefer. They also have pretty much any plugin you could ever need for different types of functionalities, but you’ll have to pay for most of them.

If you are already well-versed in using hosting companies and WordPress, WooCommerce might be your best option.

WooCommerce – CONS

What WooCommerce has going for it is that it works with WordPress, which is one of the leading content management systems in the world. WooCommerce is useless if you are not a WordPress user. It is tightly linked with WordPress and cannot be used without it. I know a lot of people who do not like WordPress…and if you don’t like WordPress, then WooCommerce is not for you.

WooCommerce is not e-commerce ready, instead you need (or eventually will need) a WooCommerce expert to help build your e-commerce store.

WooCommerce slows down when the scale of operations increases. It isn’t capable of handling large databases. So, think about how big you want your e-commerce store to be before opting for WordPress to build it.

Let’s Summarize…

WooCommerce will save you money in the short run, but Shopify is best
for beginners. All of the hosting is done for you, and so much more. All you have to do is fill your store up with your products. Just like the commercials on TV, if you want a “set-it-and-forget-it” platform, then Shopify is the better choice. Try Shopify for FREE. That means you can have your e-commerce store up and running and not pay a dime. Check it out for yourself!

If you’ve been thinking about starting your own online store, you’re
not alone. New tools have made it easier and less expensive than ever, to get started in e-commerce. Of course, a lot of people still feel like they can’t set up their own store, because they think it’s too difficult or too costly, but not with Shopify. In fact, you can now set up your e-commerce store for FREE using Shopify. This is a limited offer so don’t procrastinate!

In the meantime, I want to show you some facts about e-commerce that might surprise you:

All this information comes from comes from reputable sources such as
Statista and Harvard Business Review, and you can see just how huge
e-commerce has become.

Also, I’m certain you’ve heard about how so many brick and mortar stores are closing, malls closing…why? Because most people are gravitating towards making their purchases online, citing convenience as probably the number one factor. So getting into e-commerce, starting your online store, just makes sense!

This is just the first of several posts that I plan to share with you to help you transition into e-commerce with…not just success, but great success using Shopify! So, stick with me and I’ll take you there.

Selecting a niche is crucial. You need to choose a market that has a large number of people who are interested in the niche (via search results), but ideally not that much competition.

Let’s say you choose “Weight Loss” as your niche. That’s a huge niche, and broad! Everyone want to lose weight, look better, improve their health, etc. The weight loss niche is a highly competition niche, BUT…within that weight loss niche, find the less competitive edge, by narrowing and focusing more on a specific weight loss niche . For instance, instead of weight loss, why not a type of weight loss…Paleo Diet Plan…for instance. It falls under that weight loss umbrella and you’re setting yourself apart on a more focused niche.

⇒ Streamline your niche.

⇒ Choose a niche with a lower amount of competition. Competition lowers prices, which reduces profitability. The more sellers there
are in a market, the lower prices are likely to be, which is a lose-lose
proposition for everyone except buyers.

⇒ Select a niche that people want, need, and YOU are the one to solve their problem. That means you will have repeat buyers.

⇒ Select a niche that you’re interested in, one you can connect with, one you’re passionate about.

Tired of paying for a fax line and maintaining your fax machine? There’s a better way to send and receive faxes using an efax service called RingCentral. An eFax service enables you to receive and send faxes via your email account.

However, not all eFax services are created equal. Here are some things to consider:

1. Does the fax service provide a toll-free or local phone number? Are there extra charges for receiving faxes on your toll free number?

2. How many faxes can you send and receive for your monthly fee?

3. In what format are faxes sent? Are they delivered as .pdf files in your e-mail or do you have to view them in proprietary software?

In order to decide which eFax service is best for you, consider how many faxes you send and receive each month. Some services are best for heavy fax users, while others, offer great plans for light fax users. Many of the eFax services offer free trials so you can try before you buy. Most services charge month-to-month and you can typically cancel at any time.

With eFaxing, you’re allowed a certain number of pages. If you go over your page allotment you can expect to pay a few cents for each additional page received.

With the advent of e-mail and attachments, many people predicted that faxing was doomed. But it turns out it was merely the fax machine that was doomed. Today, business use eFax services to send and receive faxes almost as frequently as they used a standard fax machine a decade ago.

One often overlooked benefit of eFaxing is that you don’t have to print out every fax you get. You can view faxes on your computer and decide which ones you want to print or delete.

It’s a good idea to research the many eFax companies before pulling out your credit card. With a little research you will hopefully find the best one to meet your faxing needs.

In today’s world of cell phones and digital media, many business owners particularly small business owners no longer consider a toll-free number a necessity to running a successful business. After all, many cell phone plans offer free long distance; and in any case, many customers choose to get in touch for free via email.

Here’s Why You Need A Toll-Free Number For Your Business

A toll-free number allow customers to contact your business without them having to pay for their call. Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to call a business with a toll-free number than those who only have a long-distance number, and 90% of Americans say they prefer toll-free numbers.

Having a toll-free number can still benefit your business. Although a toll-free number is no longer a necessity for allowing customers to get in touch with you, it definitely makes your business appear more credible.

A small business without a toll-free number gives an impression of being run out of someones garage whereas when customers see a toll-free number, they imagine a brick-and-mortar business with a storefront, dedicated phone lines, and phone book ads. Regardless, it’s in your best interest to give your customers the impression that it does with a toll-free number.

Do you still need convincing that you need a toll-free number for your business? By following these 5 easy steps, you can discover for yourself how a toll-number can help your business grow…

1. Expand Your Market

Toll-free numbers allow you to use the same number for receiving local toll and state-to-state calls. This gives you the opportunity to market your business nationwide. Even if you don’t provide service in certain areas, toll-free numbers have the flexibility to block calls from those areas.

2. Advertise Your Number

Toll-free numbers lend an air of legitimacy and professionalism to your business, your business may appear larger and more established to the consumer which will make him/her trust you more.

3. Initiate A Direct Response Mechanism For Impulse Buyers

By allowing your customers an avenue to immediately react to your company’s efforts calling for their action, this prompts significant increases in phone orders. It has been found that these buyers generally order more merchandise and higher ticket items nearly every time they call.

4. Qualify Your Buyers

A toll-free number enables your business to use time more efficiently and effectively, you’ll know that someone who has called your business is already interested in what you have to offer. You’ll spend less time trying to find interested prospects and let the number find them for you.

5. Analyze Your Call Detail

Toll-free numbers allow you to track calls and access all of a call’s details such as the number, time, date and duration of every call. This information cannot be blocked and is an excellent tool for generating leads which can lead to more sales.

OK, I think you get it now. A toll-free number is a MUST HAVE for any business. With that said, I get a lot of inquires about a toll-free number for business use. Remember when those numbers use to be free? Not anymore, BUT you can get a toll-free number at a reasonable price. I highly recommend two of the best toll-free providers out there, FreedomVoice. I love FreedomVoice because they have pricing options to fit any budget, PLUS, you can try out their services for 30 days. Now who wouldn’t want that! Also, there’s no contract involved.

The second toll-free provider is RingCentral. With RingCentral, you’ll also get a free trial, but it’s for 15 days and they also have pricing to fit any budget.

Check out these two recommended providers for yourself, get connected with a toll-free number for your business, and watch your business grow!

Many small businesses are run from home computers and fall under the radar of business statistics. Whether you are working for a multi-level marketing company or selling painted bird houses, the difficulty of advertising your products without a budget is overwhelming. Let us face the fact that $20 a month spent on classified advertisement isn’t going to bring in a flood of visitors. Therefore, you need to implement effective marketing strategies at little or no cost to help boost your business and increase your customer base.

Like many of you I run a small business and have learned through trial and error what works and what doesn’t. Despite putting some notches in my belt I have never stopped learning. In the beginning, I wasted money paying for different types of advertisements. Some worked a little more than others, but I knew I needed more. Regardless, I continued to research, educate myself, and apply the right marketing strategies to get the results I wanted. Consistency is key!

What marketing strategies did I use ? There are plenty of marketing strategies out there, but I wanted to share four strategies that will make a difference, especially if you’re working with little to no budget.

Marketing Strategies #1 – Email Marketing

Instead of paying for lists and possibly getting in trouble for spamming I send businesses a very personalized email message. How do I find these businesses? I find them by looking on the web, going to their homepage, reading a little about them, and then sending them a personalized email about my product or service. The key is personalization. Write a basic sales letter which highlights your product or service and how it can impact their business. Cost to do this: FREE

Marketing Strategies #2 – Content Marketing

Search engines and customers love informative articles. We have all heard the saying, knowledge is power. Customers want to learn about your business as much as possible. Posting informative articles on your web page will help visitors keep returning for additional information and hold them there longer. Information also increases your credibility as a business to the potential customer. If they agree with what you are saying they are more likely to purchase from you. Search engines, like customers, are constantly searching for content related information. If your articles are about the product or service you are selling chances are that search engines will rank your site higher. Cost: FREE

Marketing Strategies #3 – Business Cards

Off-line marketing has never gone out of style. It may even be more necessary today than it was in yesteryear. Always have your business cards with you whenever you’re out in the public.

Your business card is another form of advertising. With this in mind, your business card should represent your business in both words and design. A well-designed card is one that the recipient wants to hang onto and one that stands out in the crowd. Remember, your credibility is at stake here, so make sure your business card represent your trustworthiness, honesty, and reliability.

But get this, if you’re having a conversation with a potential customer and that customer asks for your business card and you don’t have one immediately available, your reputation and credibility is at stake and you just lost a customer. The cost to make business cards vary in price depending on design, card stock, and number of cards printed. I suggest you go to vistaprint.com and check out their $10 business card deal.

Marketing Strategies #4 – Ezine Articles

People love free information. Make sure your articles are informative, professional and worthy then submit those to article databases for free content. Then websites pick up the article to post on their own site. The trick is to have your personal contact information either embedded into the article or as a tag line on the end. Personally I use my web address and my name. The better your article the more times it is posted around the web and the more customers you will get. Cost: FREE.

The following explanation of Ezine Articles was taken from ezinearticles.com:

EzineArticles.com is a platform for experts in over 600 niche markets who share their expertise in the form of short articles (400-800 words long) for the benefit of having access to the tens-of-millions of monthly visitors the site receives.

EzineArticles members submit their best quality original articles in exchange for being able to post a resource box, with a link back to their website at the bottom of each article. This link drives pre-qualified visitors (traffic) back to their website.

Members get traffic, market visibility to their target market, media exposure and a platform on which to build their own platform… for FREE.

EzineArticles.com gives experts in 600+ niche markets a “voice”… a chance to be exposed to their target audience.

In terms of marketing strategies, EzineArticles.com is more like a “Grassroots” strategy because membership is free, yet the traffic results over time are very tangible.

I couldn’t have explained Ezine Articles better!

These four strategies work together to enhance the popularity of a website and reduce the amount of time you waste everyday. Writing informative articles about your product and submitting them to ezine directories helps to improve your sites search engine rankings, retain your customers and increase overall exposure. Passing out business cards and networking with other owners works well together and kills two birds with one stone. Sending out personalize emails and reading about your customers’ site helps to increase your understanding of your customers needs while advertising to them.

In a nutshell, the overall strategy of any business is to make more money and spend less time and resources doing it.

Acer laptops are considered to be one of the best laptops for professional and business use. Yes, there are plenty of other laptops that also fall within this category, but I want to focus on the Acer brand simply because most people tend to focus on HP, Dell…you know, those guys. I’d like to assist you in your decision making, or at least bring awareness to the Acer brand.

Acer is one of the most successful PC companies in the world. They are established in over a hundred countries and have a solid reputation of offering customers reliable and up-to-date technological services at very reasonable prices.

Among their products is Acer laptops, which are useful for both the home business (or personal) user that has space constraints and the business user who desires mobility and high functional features.

In this post, I am choosing not to got into great detail about each one of these Acer Series because there are no many laptops with it’s own unique quality. However, I will give you a brief overview of qualities that are shared among each laptop within it’s perspective series. Click the link next to each series if you want more details.

Let’s explore a few (and there are many) of Acer’s laptop series.

1. Acer TravelMate Series

The TravelMate B are portable laptops that look great and are great for productivity. It’s aimed at both business and consumer users. It has a quad-core Intel Celeron processor and weighs less than three pounds. It’s a good choice if you don’t want to spend a lot of money, but you still need a traditional Windows laptop with a little more features, like a touch screen.

TravelMate P are Full-featured business laptops that deliver superior performance, manageability and security features. It’s considered to be the business laptop for serious work.

The TravelMate X comes with a DDR4 and SSD for optimal performance. You get a 14 inch 1080 HD clear view screen, a backlit keyboard and a much wider touch pad.

2. Acer Swift Series: 1, 3, 5, and 7

The Acer Swift Series are ultra-thin, yet sturdy aluminum body, stylish laptops with a touch of class. I love the way these laptops look, but more importantly, I love the power and efficiency it provides every time. This is a wonderful laptop that has a great HD 1080 display. It’s quiet and has unique fingerprint reading. Imagine not having to login in with your password each and every time! It has a really nice keyboard with super fast booting and get this…9 hours of battery life!

3. Acer Aspire Series

From everyday computing to a tough professional workload, experience a new level of design and performance options. All the Acer laptops that falls into the Aspire Series are specifically designed to provide different applications and price range. These Acer laptops are also affordable with excellent components for the price. It has a full HD display, lots of storage and a long battery life.

4. Acer Chromebook Series: Spin 11, Tab 10

The Acer Chromebook Series are all 100% aluminum alloy, sleek, thin design, strong, durable. These chromebooks have large screens, your choice of HD or full HD resolution, low reflection with anti-glare screen. That makes it easier on the eyes prompting greater productivity. It can give you up to 12 hours of battery life too! Quick booting, loaded with thousands of apps with built-in virus protection.

5. Acer Switch Series: 3, 5, 7, and Alpha 12

The Acer Switch Series are the perfect blend of laptop and tablet combined with endless possibilities. They are called “2 in 1” because it’s a tablet and can morph into a functional laptop, complete with stylus. These laptops are for the budget conscious who want consistent performance. In my opinion, these laptops are on the higher end of “basic.” It’s pretty much what you can expect from a tablet computer.

Whatever your decision might be, make sure you research exactly what you need in a laptop. Are you looking at mobility, longevity, the cool features, 1080 HD, detachable keyboard, loads of memory, touch screen, etc? Whatever your business needs are, I’m certain you will find the perfect match with Acer laptops.